The disadvantages of the conventional reciprocating-piston internal combustion engine are well known: a low ratio of power developed to engine mass and limited efficiency due to loss of kinetic energy upon piston reversal between strokes. The same holds true also for piston compressors and pumps.
While V-type engines have a higher power/mass ratio, such designs as the Wankel engine have serious sealing problems even today.
In other known rotary-vane machines, essential components of the vane-controlling mechanism rotate at speeds much higher than the shaft speed of the machine, causing excessive wear and reducing the reliability and service life of the machines.
It is one of the objectives of the present invention to overcome the disadvantages of the prior-art machines and engines, and to provide a rotary-vane machine usable as compressor, pump or internal combustion engine that has a high output/mass ratio and suffers no kinetic-energy losses due to the need for stroke reversal; that has no components rotating at a speed substantially higher than the rotor shaft and encounters no serious sealing problems, and that uses few and relatively simple components.